London, December 30: The United Kingdom's Health Regulator on Wednesday approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by drug maker AstraZeneca in collaboration with University of Oxford. "Government has today accepted the recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to authorise Oxford University-AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for use," said the UK Government as reported by news agency ANI.

The UK has reportedly ordered 100 Million doses of the vaccine from the manufacturer AstraZeneca which is enough to vaccinate 50 million people.

The drug maker said the first doses of the vaccine were being released, so that vaccinations may begin early in the New Year, in a statement. Adding that it aims to supply Millions of doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in the first quarter of the coming year. Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine's Efficacy Rate Will be 'Around 95%', Claims AstraZeneca CEO Ahead of Likely Rollout in UK and India.

AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot reportedly said “today is an important day for millions of people in the U.K. who will get access to this new vaccine. It has been shown to be effective, well-tolerated, simple to administer and is supplied by AstraZeneca at no profit." Oxford-AstraZeneca Ready for ‘Mix-Match’ COVID-19 Vaccine Trial With Russia’s Sputnik V: Reports.

"We would like to thank our many colleagues at AstraZeneca, Oxford University, the UK government and the tens of thousands of clinical trial participants," he added.

With this, AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine becomes the second vaccine, after Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, to be approved by the UK health regulator. The vaccine manufacturer has claimed that it is 95 per cent effective against COVID-19.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 30, 2020 01:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).